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Cleveland Won't Host Big Ten Championship Games, Despite Pitch

The Big Ten will begin with championship games starting next season, but Cleveland wasn't even considered as a potential host according the Plain Dealer.

"We were very disappointed,"  David Gilbert, president of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, told the Plain Dealer. "Obviously, it's their decision, but I think there were a number of other potentially very good cities, including Cleveland, that they dismissed without looking at it. I think that we could have been very good for them. But that's their call, and we'll stand ready when they're ready to look at other cities."

The Big Ten apparently isn't looking at Cleveland at anytime in the near future as they only allowed Indianapolis and Chicago to make pitches at the Big Ten meetings last week. Those two cities were apparently making pitches for the future, too, as the Big Ten football championship will be played indoors at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Dec. 3 and both mens and womens basketball tournaments are also locked up by Indianapolis for the upcoming season.

This has drawn the ire of Gilbert considering he wasn't even given an opportunity to make the case for Cleveland.

"We're 110 percent interested," Gilbert said. "And not only are we interested, we really believe we would be a phenomenal host. We think we'd pay more attention to the event than anyone else and make more out of it."

Just another case of Cleveland getting no respect, huh?

Photographs by spatulated, Triple Tri, and chrischappelear used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.